While Prisoners, Saving Mr. Banks, and The Spectacular Now have generated positive reviews at the box office, they also share one common distinction: They were all recognized on Franklin Leonard’s Black List, an annual compendium of the year’s most-liked un-produced screenplays as determined by the hundreds of executives in Hollywood that spend their lives reading scripts.

Leonard, 35, began the list in 2005 on a lark. As a young development executive about to leave for winter vacation, he was tired of all the bad scripts he’d been reading. On a whim he sent out an email to everyone her knew in the business — at the time about 95 individuals — asking them to select the screenplays they enjoyed reading most over the past 12 months. He compiled the results, named it the Black List (Leonard is African-American) and a phenomenon was born.

This year, the executive surveyed over 250 professionals, in addition to launching a website in October 2012 where any aspiring screenwriter can submit their script for a fee and receive feedback and perhaps even an entry into Hollywood. This year’s list features five scripts that came directly from the website.

“The biggest headline I found this year is the gap between being an aspiring screenwriter and a working screenwriter is now simply being a good screenwriter,” says Leonard, whose website now counts 2200 industry professionals, including both agency assistants and studio presidents, as its members. “The obstacles that were there just to get your script to the right people are officially gone.”

Leonard’s successes include Irish writer Declan O’Dwyer, whose crime drama Broken Country was purchased by producer Basil Iwanyk. Another writer, Richard Cordiner, lives in San Francisco and works in the advertising business, and based on the strength of his screenplay about the making of Jaws, landed a deal at Warner Bros. (His script The Shark Is Not Working also received a spot on the list.)

“The idea that you have to live in Los Angeles to break through is no longer true.”

Leonard says his industry base downloaded 12,000 screenplays in the first year.

Also significant this year are scripts focused on real people but distilled down to a critical moment in their lives. Out of 72 scripts, 20 are based on true events, including Debora Cahn’s script The Special Program, which centers on a young attorney who took on Vice President Dick Cheney and his illegal Special Program. There are also two scripts about Mr. Rogers, one on Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, one on Oscar Wilde, and two about the making of the movie Jaws.

Gone are the days of the cradle-to-grave biopics, with writers preferring to go deep into one significant moment, à la The King’s Speech or even Saving Mr. Banks, as it pertains to Walt Disney.

“The snapshot biopic, where everything before the movie begins is obvious and everything that follows afterwards is obvious, [is gaining steam],” Leonard says. “It’s not about writing a movie that can be a $700 million box-office grosser. Produce a good story well told with emotional content and real people, and you’ve got a darn good chance of the industry taking notice.”

The top 10 scripts, which feature two female screenwriters and one African-American, are below:

HOLLAND, MICHIGAN by Andrew Sodroski (46 votes)

Log line: When a traditional Midwestern woman suspects her husband of infidelity, an amateur investigation unravels.

Status: In pre-production with Naomi Watts scheduled to star and Errol Morris attached to direct.

SECTION 6 by Aaron Berg (44 votes)

Log line: An exploration of the formation of Great Britain’s secret intelligence agency, Military Intelligence, Section 6, known more commonly as MI6.

Status: In development with Marc Platt Productions

FRISCO by Simon Stephenson (39 votes)

Log line: A forty-something pediatric allergist, who specializes in the hazelnut and is facing a divorce, learns lessons in living from a wise-beyond-her-years terminally ill 15 year old patient when she crashes his weekend trip to a conference in San Francisco.

Status: Optioned by producer Tom McNulty (Date Night)

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness, author of the Chaos Walking book series (27 votes)

Log line: An adolescent boy with a terminally ill single mother begins having visions of a tree monster, who tells him truths about life in the form of three stories, helping him to eventually cope with his emotions over his dying mom.

Status: unknown

THE SPECIAL PROGRAM by Debora Cahn, Grey’s Anatomy producer (25 votes)

Log line: The true story of Jack Goldsmith, a young attorney who took charge of the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel, then courageously took on Vice President Cheney and his powerful inner circle when he discovered they were running a number of illegal activities through their so-called “Special Program.”

Log line: Over 24 hours, four teenage friends try to complete the “Shovel List” (a will/bucket list) left for them by their best friend before he died of Leukemia.

Status: unknown

THE INDEPENDENT by Evan Parter (20 votes)

Log line: With America’s first viable independent Presidential Candidate poised for victory, an idealistic young journalist uncovers a conspiracy, which places the fate of the election, and the country, in his hands.

Status: unknown

REMINISCENCE Lisa Joy Nolan, Jonah Nolan’s wife (20 votes)

Log line: An “archeologist” whose technology allows you to relive your past finds himself abusing his own science to find the missing love of his life.

Log line: In the Old West, a group of soldiers go on a mission to slaughter a peaceful tribe in retaliation for another tribe’s attack on a white settlement, only to suffer at the hands of a devastating disease.